Conventional packaging apparatus for such applications generally involve one or more towers in which a product is collected ready for packaging, and an ejection apparatus at the base end of each tower for ejecting the product in predetermined lengths from a horizontally aligned outlet thereof onto a horizontal support device. The ejection apparatus generally has a square or rectangular shaped outlet, and is provided with a device for gripping a bag when fitted over the outlet. In operation, the inlet portion of a bag which is generally made of an impervious material such as plastics, is manually fitted over the outlet and the gripping device then operated to hold the bag in place. The ejection apparatus is then operated to eject a length of the product into the bag, which is cut off by a cutter at a predetermined size, and the gripping device released, to allow the filled bag to be pushed by an ejector of the ejection apparatus onto the support device.
Since the operation of fitting the bag to the outlet of the ejection apparatus, is carried out manually, the operation is time consuming, contaminants can be introduced to the product, and space is required to allow the operator access to the region.
The support device is generally in the form of a conveyor belt which then conveys the filled bag to a weighing apparatus where the bag is weighed. If the weight is below a predetermined weight, then the bag must be topped up with additional product. Since this is done manually and generally requires turning the bag to an upright condition with the opening at the top, the operation is time consuming and contaminants can be introduced to the product. (Incidentally a continual problem here is that human operators develop occupational overuse syndrome in their wrists from the activity). To minimise this requirement, the bags are generally over filled, thus providing more product than necessary with a loss of profit.
Once the bag has been weighed, the top of the bag is folded to form gussets ready for scaling under vacuum, or alternatively a "pillowcase seal" is prepared by a process involving stretching part of the neck of the bag. This also is done manually, and is thus time consuming and can introduce contaminants to the product. Moreover, there is the possibility of finger contamination of the surface of the inlet portion of the bag, which can cause defective sealing by the subsequent sealing apparatus. Furthermore, the manual operation results in a lack of uniformity of the surfaces which can result in wrinkles, again affecting the subsequent sealing operation. Moreover, the bag must be accurately positioned by hand on the conveyor so that the inlet portion is lined up with scaling bars of the subsequent vacuum sealing apparatus.